Cinematographic camera having fading means



July 18, 1950 J. BoLsEY 2,515,330

CINEMATOGRAPHIC CAMERAS HAVING FADING MEANS original Filed March 26,1946 Patented `uly 18, 1950 GINEMAYIOGEAPHIG CAMERA HAVING:- FADINGJacques -Bolsey, NewYork, N. .Y.

` rolaims. (elise-17)' My present application is a division: of-.my co'-pending. U. patent application:` ASerial No. 657,282,4 entitledGinematographic.. Cameras-and filed; Marchi 26,: .1946; now;Y UnitedStatesaPatent Number 2,462,302,- issued Eebruary22,1949.

present invention, relates to,` cinematographicf cameras-t andImore.particularlyf to. cinematographiceamerasfpnovidedawith.movablelenscarrying turretsv n Itfis an .Objectformy presen-t invention. toJprovidell in@ ar.cinematographicacamera, of. the above type: aslter.arrangementl.WhiclLisextremely simple-infconstruction.'vandfzoperation y It is af further object,- of-. myfpresentinvention top'prov-ide blocking means-whfich preventfopera.- tion of the camerashutterlifenone0f`-the-1enses is in--proper.pictureltakingposition.

It isfanotherfobject oto-my.r presentinvention tofprovide afading'devicef-of extremelyfsimple construction which.` can. be.operatede either by hand. or. by" the.V spring ldriven..mecl'ia-r-iismused for i-llm` .transportation.H y

Still a further object of my present invention consists in shutteroperatingi means. which.V are constructed. so that it is possible tomakeby operationof one singlerelease member. eithermotion picture exposuresor instantaneous,andtimeexposures.

Still another objectlotmy present invention consists in-.acinematographicl` camera constructed-so f as to.` embody all abovelisted means. in com.- bination.

With the above-.objectsin..view,.my presentin- .vention mainlyrelatesto,cinematographic cam.-

eras andlconsists partly. irl-.combinationof aseries of elements namely,a camerahousing. having a front Wall, an exposure aperture inthisf.front Wall, `a lenscarryingf. turret movablymountedlon the.. mentionedfront Wall in such amanner. that the lenses carried. by this 'turretare: adapted .to move during.. movement of the. turret past thementionedexposure= apertura.. a. turnable.` filter disc. pivoted to theabove=mentionedfrontkwall,

aI plurality. of lters inltlfiis.v l'ter disc arranged v equi-distantfromthe pivot'inggaxis of this disc so of. my.. invention,v I combine.with, the- ,above arf rangement; a series.v of. additional observationopenings. in. the. above mentioned lens. carrying turret.- arranged. so.that.y one of these additional observation. openings-.is locatedlin,front ofjfthe above .mentioned observation opening in the. front Wallof.the camera` each time one, ofthe lenses carried..by-l the turret .is.1ocated inv front of' the exposure apertureinthe front Wall; In thisway, thefilter. markings. on the. lter disc appearing during turning, oftheflter discaconsecutivelyone after.. the other, in. theobservationopening inthe frontwall-.iare visible. through onev of theabove mentioned additional.v observation openings in the lens. carrying,turret when. the same is in operatiizeepositiom i; e. when `one of' thelenses carried. by.; the turret is located in front of'theexposureaperture in thefront Wall;

It..is` advisable. to make the entire frontiwall Ortle. camera removableand to mount the turret head and"1terdisc onthis'front wall sothat theyform .togetherr a .single unit' which can be .detachedlfrom thecameral'iousingwhenever; desired.,

It. is.. also advisable to provide in a sid Wall offl' the,V camerahousingva longitudinal slot: arranged so thatthe ed'ge ofthe turnablefilter: disc describedabove projects through this slot.thereby..enabling turning of the lter disc bymeansof this proj ectingedge portion. Y

Anotherfeature of my newcameraconsists'in the combination. of a lenscarrying turretorth'e type described above; aishutter mechanism ar'-ranged Within the camera .housing` and blocking means arranged .alsowithin thev camera housing andi, constructed so asto be operatedbythe-'turiret and to move into thejpath ofamovable mem,- ber of.' theshutter mechanism' when none of "the lenses carried bythe' turret islocated.- in front of' the exposure.. aperture in the front wall'of the.camera housing; thus permitting operation of the. shutter mechanism onlyWhen one of the lenses carried by theturretA is located in' front oftheexposure aperture.

My new. camerais also equippedwith` a` fading arrangement Icomprising incombination a fading member mounted Within the.` camera housing movablyto. and `fro past the exposure aperture in the front wall; ofthe camerahousing, anda longitudinal ogof'eratin'g; member mounted within saidcamera housingvslidably"inaxial direction and constructed so, astoengagesaid fadingmember. and operate thesame during its sliding moyement.

.In accordance with a preferredembodiment of my present invention, thelongitudinal operating member described above has at both endsprojecting end portions reaching through corresponding openings in thecamera housing so that this operating member and the fading memberoperated by the same can be moved by pushing against one or the other ofthe projecting end portions of the longitudinal operating member inaxial direction of the same.

It is also advisable to provide in combination with a longitudinaloperating member of the type described above, hinge means connecting oneof the above mentioned projecting end portions with the operating memberso as to enable turning of said projecting end portion relative to thelongitudinal operating member, thus preventing sliding movement of thelongitudinal operating member while the projecting end portion is inbent position.

In order to enable permanent observation of the position of the fadingmember described above, I provide my new camera with a viewfinderarrangement provided with a viewfinder window and secure to thelongitudinal operating member operating the fading member an indicatingmember which is constructed so as to move during operations of saidfading member by said longitudinal member behind said viewfinder windowof said viewfinder arrangement, thus indicating in the viewfinder windowthe degree of fading obtained by the fading member.

The above described fading arrangement might be operated manually.However, if the camera is equipped with spring driven means for movingthe film past the exposure aperture, it is advisable to arrange a motiontransmitting member, e. g. a gear train operated by these spring `drivenmeans and adapted to engage the longitudinal operating member, wheneverdesired, so as to slide the same to and fro in axial direction and tooperate the fading member.

n My new camera is adapted not only for production of motion pictures,but it is possible to take with the same also single pictures. For thesepurposes, I provide the camera with a rotatable shutter arranged withinthe camera housing behind the exposure aperture, two stop means arrangedon said rotatable shutter at different distances from the axis ofrotation of said shutter; and a shutter operating member arranged andconstructed so as to be movable in one plane, engaging during movementin the plane the stop means on the rotatable shutter and to causethereby instantaneous and time exposures by the shutter member and to bemovable normal to said plane so as not to engage any of the stop meansthus enabling the rotatable shutter to rotate freely and to cause motionpicture exposures of a film passing inside said camera housing past theeX- posure aperture in the front wall of the same.

The novel features which I consider as characteristic for my inventionare set forth in particular in the appended claims. The inventionlitself, however, both as to its construction and its method ofoperation, together with additional objects and advantages thereof, willbe best understood from the following description of specific.embodiments when read in connection with the ,accompanying drawings, inwhich:

Fig. l is a front view of a cinematographic camera according to mypresent invention, seen in direction of arrow I of Fig. 2;

Fig. 2 is a cross section through the camera shown in Fig. 1, along line2-2 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a rear view of the front wall of theV 4 camera housing of thecamera shown in Figs. 1 and 2, seen in direction of arrow 3 of Fig. 2;

Fig. 4 is a longitudinal section through the camera shown in Figs. 1 to3, along line 4-4 of Fig. 2;

Fig. 5 is a longitudinal section through the camera shown in Figs. l to4, along line 5-5 of Fig. 2;

Fig. 6 is a longitudinal section through the shutter operating leverforming part of the camera shown in Figs. l to 5, along line 6-6 of Fig.5;

Fig. 7 is a rear view of the shutter operating lever shown in Fig. 6,seen in direction of arrow 1 of Fig. 6;

Figs. 8 and 9 are schematic illustrations of the shutter` operatingmeans in different positions; and

Fig. 10 is a partial bottom view of the shutter operating means, partlyin section along line lll-I0 of Fig. 5.

As shown in Figs. l and 2, my new camera comprises a camera housing 20of well known type equipped at its front end with a shutter compartment2| which is closed in usual manner by a removable front wall 22detachably secured to the camera housing 20 by means of screws 23. Thehousing 20 itself is closed by the camera cover 24.

I wish to stress that the construction of the film transporting meansarranged in the housing 2l] itself are of well known type and thereforeare neither shown nor described in detail. My present invention asdefined above relates only to arrangements in the front compartment 2|and therefore, only these arrangements are shown in the drawingdescribed below.

A turnable turret 25 is secured by means of the pivot 2B in well knownway to the front wall 22 0f the camera. This turret carries the lenses2l, 28 and 29. The front wall 22 is provided as usual with an exposureaperture 30 which, as shown in Fig. l in dotted lines, is located behindlens 28.

In accordance with my present invention, I provide immediately behindthe front wall 22 a turnable filter disc 3| as clearly shown in Fig. 3.This lter disc is provided with six filters 32 to 31 having differentcharacteristics.

In order to enable operation of this filter disc 3| in a simple way, Iprovide in the side wall 38 of the camera housing 20 a longitudinal slot39 through which the edge 40 of disc 3| projects. Thus, it is possibleto turn the disc 3| about its pivot 4| simply by moving the projectingedge portion 4|) of the disc in direction of arrow 42.

For proper operation of the camera it is necessary to know which filteris located behind the picture taking lens, i. e. which filter is locatedbehind the exposure aperture 30. For this purpose, the filter disc 3| isprovided on its front wall with lter indicating markings 43 to 48 whichare arranged equidistant from the pivot 4| of disc 3| so that each timeone of the filters 32 to 3l is located behind the exposure aperture 30the corresponding filter marking is located behind an observationaperture 49 provided in front wall 22 of the camera housing 2U.

Of course, it is impossible to see this observation opening 49 in thefront wall 22 through the turret 25. Therefore, I provide in this turrettwo additional observation openings 5|) and 5|, arranged so that eachtime one of the lenses 2'| and 28 is located in front of the exposureaperture 30, one of the additional observation openings 59 and 5|,respectively, is located in front of the operating knob H3. The slot H2has the shape shown in Fig. l0, i. e. is provided with a middle portionH4 which is deeper than the tWo side portions II5 and H6.

This shutter operating mechanism operates as follows:

In order to obtain free rotating movement of the shutter 65, i. e. inorder to obtain motion pic'- ture exposures, the operating lever 95 ismoved into its middle position and the knob H3 is pressed downward,against direction of arrow |09, forcing the lever against action ofspring |01 into the deeper middle portion H4 of slot H2. In thisposition, the lever 95 will turn about the pivots lili! againstdirection of arrow |09 and thus both projections 96 and 91 forming partof the lever 95 will move out of the path of the operating pins H andIII arranged on the rotatable shutter 65; thus, these pins H0 and IIIwill be free to turn together with the shutter 65 unhindered by theshutter operating lever 95. It is evident that this will result in anuninterrupted series of motion picture exposures.

In order to terminate such motion picture exposures, it is onlynecessary to release the operating knob H3 and the operating lever 95will be turned by spring |01 in direction of arrow |09 back into itsinitial middle upper position shown in Fig. 8.

In order to obtain one single instantaneous exposure, it is onlynecessary to move the operating lever 95 from its position shown in Fig.8 into its position shown in Fig. 5. This will result in release of theoperating pin I II from the it from its position shown in Fig. 5 intoits position shown in Fig. 8: during such turning movement of lever 95,pin III will be released from projection 91 and will abut, as shown inFig. 8, against projection 96 without, however, exposing during suchmovement the exposure aperture 11.

` In order to obtain one single time exposure, it

is only necessary to turn the operating lever 95 from its position shownin 8 into its position shown in Fig. 9: Such movement of lever 95 willresult in release of the operating pin III from .projection 9S andturning of the shutter from its position shown in Fig. 8 into itsposition shown in Fig. 9 in which it is held by pin H0 abutting againstprojection 91. As clearly shown in Fig. 9, in this position the exposureaperture 11 is open, not covered by shutter 65. After making a timeexposure of desired length, the exposure aperture is closed again byturning the operating lever 95 from its position shown in Fig. 9 backinto its position shown in Fig. 8: such turning will result in releaseof the operating pin I IU from the projection 91 and turning of theshutter 65 from its position shown in Fig. 9 into its position shown `inFig. 8 in which it is held by the operating pin I I I abutting againstthe projection 96 of lever 95. Thus, it is possible to obtain bydifferent m0vements of the shutter operating lever 95 either motionpicture exposures or instantaneous exposures or time exposures.

I wish to stress that various changes and vari- 'ations 'might be madein cinematographic cameras of the above described type without departingin any way from the spirit of my present invention. I

Thus, for instance, the observation opening or openings for observingthe markings on the lter disc might be provided in one or both sidewallsof the camera housing instead of in the front wall thereof. In suchcase, the lter markings on the filter disc are arranged so as to passalong the observation opening or openings in the side wall of the camerahousing. In order to enable their passage along the observation openingsarranged in the side walls, they are preferably arranged along the edgeof the lter disc normal to the plane thereof.

A further change which might be made without departing from the spiritof my present invention consists in mounting the turnable lter disc onthe partition wallor a bridge secured thereto instead of mounting it onthe removable front wall of the camera.

Furthermore, it is also possible to provide along the edge of the lterdisc identical markings appearing on the projecting filter disc portionand corresponding to the filter located behind the lens being in picturetaking position. In this connection, I wish to mention that it isusually not necessary that all apertures in the filter disc containfilter members but that it is advisable to leave one of the apertures inthe ilter disc open so as to make it possible to take pictures withoutany filter arranged behind the picture taking ens.

It should also be stressed that although I have mentioned above onlyspring means for operating the camera, I might also use for transportingthe film and rotating the shutter an electric motor built into thecamera in the usual way.

Finally, it should be mentioned thatmotion transmitting means, e. g. agear train connecting the spring or electric motor operating the cameraand the fading arrangement described above might also serve as stopmeans for automatically terminating operation of the camera at the endof a fading out period. Such automatic termination will be due to thefact that at the end of a fading out period the fading member cannotmove farther preventing turning of the `single gears of the gear trainwhich in turn will block further movement of the film transporting meansand of the spring or electric motor driving the same.

It will be understood that each of the elements described above, or twoor more together, 'may also nd a useful application in other types ofcinematographic cameras differing from the types described above.

While I have illustrated and described the invention as embodied incinematographic cameras provided with turret heads, I do not intend tobe limited to the details shown, since various modications andstructural changes may be made without departing in any way from thespirit of' my invention.

What I claim as new and desire to secure b Letters Patent is:

l. In a cinematographic camera of the type described in combination acamera housing having a front wall; an exposure aperture in said frontwall; a fading member mounted within said camera housing movably to andfro past said exposure aperture in said front wall; and a longitudinaloperating member mounted within said camera housing slidably in axialdirection and constructed so as to engage said fading member and operatethe same during its sliding movement; said longitudinal operating memberhaving at both ends projecting end portions reaching throughcorresponding openings in said camera housing so that said longitudinaloperating member and the fading member operated by the same can be movedby pushing against one or the other of said projecting end lportions ofsaid longitudinal operating member in axial direction of the same.

2. In a cinematographic camera of the type claimed in claim 1, hingemeans connecting one of said projecting end portions with saidlongitudinal operating member so as to enable turning of said projectingend portion relative to said longitudinal operating member, thuspreventing sliding movement of said longitudinal operating member whilesaid projecting end portion is in bent position.

3. In a cinematographic camera of the type described in combination acamera housing having a front wall; an exposure aperture in said frontwall; a fading member mounted within said camera housing movably to andfro past said exposure aperture in said front wall; a longitudinaloperating member mounted within said camera housing slidably in axialdirection and constructed so as to engage said fading member and operatethe same during its sliding movement; a viewfinder arrangement providedwith a viewfinder window forming part of said cinematographic camera;and anl indicating member firmly secured to said longitudinal operatingmember and constructed so as to move during operations of said fadingmember by said longitudinal member behind said viewfinder window of saidViewnder arrangement, thus indi-` scribed in combination a camerahousing having a front wall; an exposure aperture in said front Wall; afading member mounted Within said camera housing movably to and fro pastsaid exposure aperture in said front wall; and a longitudinal operatingmember mounted within said camera housing slidable in axial directionand constructed so as to engage said fading member and operate the sameduring its sliding movement; said longitudinal operating member havingat least at one end a projecting end portion reaching through acorresponding opening in said camera housing so that said longitudinaloperating member and the fading member operated by the same can be movedby moving said projecting end portion of said longitudinal operatingmember in axial direction of the same.

JACQUES BOLSEY.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the le ofthis patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,275,863 Davis Aug. 13, 19181,295,081 Tartara Feb. 18, 1919 1,398,952 Tessier Nov. 29, 19211,494,801 Pittman May 20, 1924 1,767,849 Howell June 24, 1930 1,830,121Merkel Nov. 3, 1931 1,958,618 Gilmore May 15, 1934 1,960,062 Morsbach etal May 22, 1934 1,977,134 Lingg et al Oct. 16, 1934 2,065,993 BillingDec. 29, 1936 2,217,718 Ulano Oct. 15, 1940 2,307,297 Phillimore Jan. 5,1943 2,319,204 Bolsey May 18, 1943 2,451,017 Adreancy Oct. 12, 19482,462,302 Bolsey Feb. 22, 1949

